Texas Attorney General Accuses Google Of Misleading Pixel 4 Ads

CONROE, TX — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Google in a Montgomery County district court Wednesday morning accusing the tech giant of running misleading advertisements.

The complaint accuses Google of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices — Consumer Protection Act by providing personal testimony scripts in late 2019 to iHeartMedia for ad-reads on the Google Pixel 4, even though its radio personalities had never used the phone, court documents show.

Google ignored iHeartMedia's concerns over the legality of the ads and several attempts to secure phones for its DJs to use, and the Pixel 4 ads ran on several stations in the Dallas and Houston markets with scripts matching or similar to the ones provided by Google, according to the lawsuit. The ads ran 2,405 times from Oct. 28, 2019, and Dec. 2, 2019.

The phone released Oct. 24, 2019, and recordings of the ad-reads began Oct. 21, 2019, according to the complaint.

After Google again hired iHeartMedia in January 2020 for more ad-reads on the Pixel 4, the company relented after the stations voiced concerns about the legality of the ads and provided five Pixel 4s for the company to use, according to the suit.

The lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $1 million, including up to $10,000 per violation, and a non-monetary injunction against Google from airing misleading or false advertisements.

"This is not the first time I have had to address bad behavior by Big Tech companies. They are not above the law, and I will make sure they are held accountable for their misleading business practices," Paxton said in a news release. “Google will not continue manipulating Texas consumers.”